Cuban Wrappers

My annual pilgrimage to Cuba earlier this year with a group of UK cigar retailers. Travelled from Havana by coach for two bone juddering hours to Pinar de Rio, the western province that embraces all the important growing zones in the Vuelta Abajo region and the name of the provincial capital.

Upon arrival we checked for stress fractures and then inspected the shade-grown tobacco plants, which are destined to produce leaves that will dress Habanos i.e. the wrappers. These leaves have to be grown out of direct sunlight, hence you can see the muslin cloth that covers the field which filters the sunlight and traps the heat so the leaves grow larger and finer.


The plants you see would have been planted out around 50 days previous and the harvesting of the leaves had already begun. The Vegueros (Cuban farmer) starts with the leaves at the bottom of the plant and works his way around all in the plantation before returning to the first to start at the next level up. This process will be repeated until all the usable leaves have been harvested. The remainder of the plant is then left to flower to produce the seeds for another crop later in the year.

Cuban Wrappers from Cigar Smokers Club on Vimeo.

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